McDowell trailing in Melbourne

Adam Scott missed a few chances early on but still shot a five under 67 in the first round of the Talisker Masters at Kingston Heath. Pic courtesy australianmasters.com.auJust a couple of days after weighing in on the debate on the anchoring of long putters - he’s firmly against it - Graeme McDowell was comfortably outputted by broomstick-wielding Adam Scott in the Talisker Masters in Melbourne.

The 2010 US Open champion made just two birdies in a one under 71 and took 33 putts to finish the day six shots behind leader Matthew Guyatt at Kingston Heath. Leaderboard

“Beautiful morning at Kingston Heath today,” McDowell tweeted. “Hit it nicely but didn’t hit my irons close enough to make more birdies. Get aggressive tomorrow!”

Queenslander Guyatt fired a seven under 65 to lead by two shots from defending champion Ian Poulter and Australians Michael Hendry and Scott, who had just 27 putts in an early morning three ball with McDowell and amateur Oliver Goss (71).

Starting on the back nine, Scott was frustrated to miss a hatful of chances as he went out in level par. But he made amends on the way home by picking up shots at the first, second, third, fourth and seventh.

“Realistically, I felt nine or 10 (under) was possible for the way I played today if everything went my way,” Scott said. I’m not complaining, it’s a good start.

“Look, today was a perfect day. The course’s defences were down today, there was no wind and the greens were soft and not very fast.

“I didn’t take advantage of my good play on my first nine holes, but I certainly did on my back nine, so that made up for it,” he said.

Poulter wasn’t surprised by the scoring.

“If the weather is benign like this, the golf course is going to give up a lot of birdies,” he said after matching Scott with six birdies and a bogey. “You can expect to hole a lot of putts, the greens are perfect.

“Obviously, they’re going to water the greens a little bit, so therefore we’re going to have the best of it. They’re going to be cut and, hopefully, be a little bit softer for the morning wave. So it will be nice to get back out there.”

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